Though Sam Rife has farmed most all his life, there’s a lot more he likes to talk about, such as playing football and riding the rodeo circuit.
Rife and his wife Helen will be recognized Wednesday night for their soil and water conservation practices at the annual meeting of the Allen County Conservation District. The Rifes have built nearly six acres of waterways and 10,161 feet of terraces on their land northeast of Mildred.
From their split-level house perched on the side of a rise, the birds salute daybreak with a chorus clear and crisp. City life never had any appeal, although Rife had a taste of the big time when he was riding bulls and roping calves and as an Army paratrooper.
He was born at Shaw, near Erie, and grew up a few miles outside of Xenia, a town so small entrance and exit greetings were painted back-to-back on the same sign, quipped Sam, in the humorous vein that accentuates just about everything he says.
ASK A question, and Rife answers with a story, “which reminds me of another story.” He also is quick to break into verse from a Hank Williams tune before picking up a harmonica to play a jazzy version of another Country classic.
Every third Saturday he joins others to play their various instruments at Mildred’s only store, appropriately called, The Mildred Store.
“It doesn’t cost anything, although there are sandwiches to buy,” injects the missus. “You might even want a beer,” Rife says, with a bubbly twinkle in his eye.
Music is fine, but its rodeoing and football that Rife likes most to crow about, and the undiluted fact that he worked like a man from his pre-teen years. “In 1945 I was 11, I had worked three years with Dad (P.K. Fife), driving teams pulling a slip on railroad work. (A slip is a scraper-like device that was used to move dirt.)
During his growing-up years, Rife was something of ruffian who liked a good fight as well as the next kid and never was at a loss for something to do, warm weather or cold. An addiction to good times followed him through life.
HE WAS born Melvin Rife, but since a child has gone by the more familiar Sam.
Growing up doing farm work helped Sam become a standout on the Blue Mound High School football team.
“I cultivated a lot of corn with a two-row cultivator pulled by horses that were hard to handle. One day the coach told the other players to ride bikes” to build up their legs “until they look like Sam’s,” he said.
At 5-foot-9 and 210 pounds, Rife was built like a fireplug, strong and tough and a terror at linebacker. After he graduated from high school in 1951 he went on to play at Fort Scott Junior College — originally he was bound for Iola, but the juco had dropped football — and then Ottawa University.
In the Army he was one of 500 to try out for a service team. “They cut and cut and cut, and I was still on the team. They asked where I wanted to play. I said, ‘Anywhere but center.’ I remembered how much misery I’d dealt centers.”
He was put at blocking back, where he helped clear paths for Bobby Luna, who had been an Alabama star running back, as well as linebacker. “I liked linebacker because you could see all that was going on. I loved contact.”
After his discharge he was offered a pro contract. “They talked, I think, $200 a game. I said, ‘No, I can make more money rodeoing.’”
